Red Eyes, Red Blood and Pink Brain Matter
by no reason- no purpose
Summary: On the day the genin teams were assigned, something seemed off about Sakura. Unfortunately for him, Sasuke didn't notice until too late.
1. Team 7

_Red Eyes, Red Blood and Pink Brain Matter_

_Summary: On the day the genin teams were assigned, something seemed off about Sakura. Unfortunately for him, Sasuke didn't notice until too late._

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-. 

**1. Team 7**

**SasuYuno. This pairing is so weird and creepy. Why not write a fanfic about it?**

**Anyway, just to tell you (if anyone really bothers to read Author's Notes), you don't really need to have read/watched all of Mirai Nikki before reading this, though it would be better if you have, since you'll be more familiar with Yuno's character.**

**Pairings: Technically, none. Just ****_very_**** one-sided SasuYuno.**

**Disclaimer: Blah blah, nothing belongs to me except this fanfic. Even the title picture doesn't belong to me, since I found it on zerochan . net**

* * *

Sasuke had always been the type of individual to arrive early. Not ridiculously so, but early enough for him to observe and assess his surroundings to his liking. He always did like being prepared, and being as many steps ahead of any situation as he possibly could.

When he arrived in the classroom on the morning the genin teams were assigned, there were only five people present. Scanning the classroom, he noticed offhandedly that Haruno Sakura, one of his more prominent fan girls, was already seated in one of the front rows. He inwardly sighed in relief when she didn't immediately turn around and breach his personal space. In fact, she seemed occupied, and from the angle of the seat he took, it looked like she was writing down on a small notebook.

Well good, because at least he'll get to have some peace and quiet- a perfect opportunity to let his mind wander.

Sasuke had a vague idea of how the teams were put together; from the looks of it, the arrangements seemed mostly random, but he _did_ know that traditionally, the Rookie of the Year was to be on the same team as the Dead Last, with the third member having their name drawn from a hat or something. And since he had graduated as the Rookie of the Year, he would've guessed that he would be put on the same team as Uzumaki Naruto, that annoying loudmouth who didn't even seem to take the idea of being a ninja seriously. But then, since the blonde didn't graduate...

Sasuke noticed that the classroom was fuller than before; nearly all the present graduates were chatting with each other, and he overheard bits of different conversations.

'Hey! You think that we'll get to be in the same team?' a boy's voice asked excitedly.

'I dunno, I really hope so. I mean, they should put us together with people we get along with, right? Won't we work better as a team that way?' his friend answered in a softer tone.

'But aren't the teams based on our abilities?' asked a girl.

'Well yeah, but it can be this and that too. By the way, haven't you seen all the previous teams? They're all two guys one girl!' the first voice exclaimed.

'Huh. It's just like they're asking for there to be a love triangle.'

Of course everyone, including him, was curious about the teams. After all, they were going to be people they had to work with at least until they get promoted to chuunin.

'Oi, Naruto! What are you doing here? I thought this class was only for those who graduated.'

'Hey, hey! Can't you see this forehead protector?'

Well, isn't this interesting. Sasuke could have sworn that the idiot had failed the test. But now they're definitely going to be stuck on the same team together. Brilliant. So much for not having dead weights to drag him down. Was it really that much to ask for?

'Hey Forehead! What's with the change of hairstyle? I don't think I've ever seen you in pigtails before.'

Sasuke recognised that voice as Yamanaka Ino's, a girl who happened to be yet another one of his prominent fan girls.

'Huh... really? Does it look weird?'

'Well... no. Just different. It'll take some getting used to, I suppose, but-'

'Sakura-chan!' Naruto called, bounding towards the girl. He ignored the scathing look that Ino directed at him for interrupting her, focusing only on Sakura.

'You look even cuter today!' Was his enthusiastic greeting. Sasuke couldn't really see how Sakura reacted to that, but he was guessing that she must have smiled or something, if the blush on Naruto's face was anything to go by.

'Thank you, Naruto-san,' Sakura replied politely.

'A-ah, no problem...'

It wasn't as if Sasuke really paid attention to how those two interacted, but it wasn't that hard to know, especially since they sometimes didn't even seem to know what an indoor voice was. Usually, Naruto would just be his usual loud and annoying self, and Sakura, with her short temper, would end up having a shouting match with him. This obviously wasn't the case that morning, so it just sort of stood out. But anyway...

Sasuke snapped himself out of his thoughts when Iruka walked into the classroom. He did a quick explanation on the duties of a shinobi, then began reading the teams out. After lots of moaning, groaning and cheering, he finally read up to Team 7.

'Okay... next is Team 7. Haruno Sakura, Uzumaki Naruto and Uchiha Sasuke. And...'

Naruto immediately objected, saying 'What? Why him?!', but Iruka paid no notice and continued on reading out the names of Team 8. Sasuke wasn't too happy with the arrangement either; it was just his rotten luck that he got placed in the same team as the dead last and a fan girl who probably spent more time fawning over boys than training. Oh, he could already tell that they were going to get along _just fine_.

* * *

'Well why don't we introduce ourselves- how about our likes, dislikes, dreams for the future and things like that,' Kakashi suggested.

'Hey, why don't you introduce yourself to us first?' Naruto all but demanded.

'Yeah, just to give us an example,' agreed Sakura.

Sasuke wasn't particularly impressed by their jounin sensei. First of all, the man was two freaking hours late. That alone had already pissed him off to no end, though he was much better at hiding it than Naruto. And then the supposed jounin had somehow managed to fall for a prank that even civilians can manage to avoid. What the hell.

'- let's start on the right.'

'Yosh!' Naruto exclaimed. 'My name is Uzumaki Naruto. I like cup ramen, and what I like even more is when Iruka-sensei pays for my ramen. What I dislike is waiting three minutes for the ramen to cook...'

_'...and your dream is to become a ramen chef,'_ Sasuke finished sardonically in his head. _'Hooray for you.'_

'...and my dream is to become Hokage, and then have everyone in this village acknowledge my existence! And hobbies... pranks I guess,' Naruto finished.

Kakashi looked at the blond for a moment, before saying, 'Next'.

Sasuke sighed and began.

'My name is Uchiha Sasuke. There are lots of things I dislike and I don't really like anything.' More like he just wasn't bothered to tell them the specifics. 'And it's not exactly a dream- more of an ambition. It's the resurrection of the clan...' Though it had a really slim chance of happening. '...and to kill a certain man.' Which was top priority.

'Okay...' Kakashi said, eyeing Sasuke warily. 'And lastly, the girl.'

Sakura smiled and began her introduction.

'My name is Haruno Sakura, though I'd prefer it if you called me Yuno.'

'Wait,' Naruto interrupted. 'But no one ever calls you Yuno!'

'Oh, it's... my parent's special nickname for me. Not everyone gets to call me that,' she quickly explained. 'And well, I like the colour red- and also this person who is special to me.' A small hint of a blush appeared on her cheeks at this. 'And my dream for the future is to become the bride of that special person. My hobbies are reading and writing... and what I dislike...' Her expression immediately darkened at this. 'Is having a rival.'

There seemed to be something rather ominous about the way she said that last part, but it was quickly handwaved by the other three, and Kakashi told them that they had a survival training lesson tomorrow. After their jounin sensei left with a 'Don't be late!' and disappeared, Sasuke inwardly scoffed and shoved his hands into his pockets, heading back to his home.

He did not notice a pair of green eyes following him, watching his every move.

* * *

'Come here and fight me!'

_'What even...'_ Sasuke fought the urge to facepalm as he watched his idiot of a team-mate stand a few metres in front of Kakashi, brimming with arrogant confidence. He watched their exchange right up until the part where Naruto got ticked off by getting ignored in favour of an erotic novel, when he heard some leaves rustle behind him. Sasuke instinctively grabbed a kunai from his pouch and whirled around to face the intruder.

'Sasuke-kun?'

To Sasuke's slight disappointment, Sakura- no- Yuno hadn't even flinched when he almost attacked her. Geez, what does she want?

'Sasuke-kun,' she repeated, 'I have a plan for us to each get a bell.'

_'Che. You'll just get in the way,'_ Sasuke thought. On the outside he just 'Hn'ed' and ignored her, like he had done many times back in the Academy. Maybe her confidence will wilt and then she'll leave him alone.

But unfortunately for him, she interpreted his wordless grunt as a sign to continue, so she remained.

'We'll use Naruto-' She pointed a finger towards the one-sided fight below them. '-as a bait or distraction, and then we attack while our sensei's occupied. You'll confront him in direct combat, because you're the better fighter. I'll join in the fight as well, and after you've sent some big and flashy distraction towards him, I'll snatch the bells for us.'

Despite being annoyed at her company, Sasuke found himself considering her plan.

'You haven't really put much thought into Naruto's role,' he finally said. 'What if he pulls off something that ruins the plan?' _'He _is _pretty unpredictable sometimes.'_

'EYAAAAAAAAHHHH!'

They both looked just in time to see Naruto literally flying towards the river, clutching his ass. Meanwhile, Kakashi was half-reading his book and half-watching his student dive head-first into the water.

...What just happened.

'I hope he doesn't drown,' Yuno murmured, furrowing her brows. 'Sensei will just deflect our attacks if we don't have the element of surprise.'

Sasuke raised an eyebrow at this, but didn't say anything.

'So...' Yuno refocused her attention on the boy next to her. 'He can pull off anything he wants, as long as it distracts our sensei enough for us to attack him and get the bells.'

Sasuke remained silent, watching as Naruto, still underwater, threw two shuriken at Kakashi, who caught them easily.

'Please, Sasuke-kun? I promise that I'll get us the bells,' Yuno begged, looking at him with pleading eyes.

Sasuke immediately regretted not outright discouraging her company when she had first approached him. But since it _did_ sound like a reasonable plan that might actually work...

'Fine.'

Yuno's eyes widened, then she blushed and smiled shyly at him.

'Thank you,' she said quietly as she turned to watch Naruto resurface and argue with Kakashi.

Great. In fan girl language, he might as well have just proposed to her, or something equally ridiculous.

_'Just this once,'_ Sasuke told himself, intently watching Naruto and Kakashi. His eyes widened when he saw eight more Narutos resurface from the river.

_'What jutsu is that...?'_

Next to him, Yuno tensed.

'Those aren't illusions...' she whispered, narrowing her eyes.

Suddenly, a Naruto appeared out of nowhere and grabbed Kakashi from behind. Two more Narutos dove down to grab the man's feet while another one yelled at him.

'Now!'

The following fight that ensued was a rather new experience for Sasuke. For one, just like everyone from the Academy, the only fighting experience he'd ever had outside of his daily training sessions was the occasional one-on-one spar against a fellow classmate. Who, more often than not, in his opinion, sucked. But all in all, he had never fought _with_ another before, so this whole 'working together' thing with Sa-_Yuno_- well… he'll stick with her plan and see what happens. If it doesn't work, then he'll just go back to doing his own thing, just like how he'd planned to from the start.

But maybe that wasn't necessary, since Yuno's plan actually seemed to be working so far. Kakashi, who obviously wasn't going to let himself continue being trapped by the Narutos, used the Kawarimi and replaced himself with a Naruto clone. However, the jounin had essentially just teleported himself closer to his other two students, something that Sasuke took advantage of. The two of them engaged in a taijutsu fight (in which Sasuke felt like kicking himself afterwards because he had actually managed to _touch the goddamn bells_) and, true to her word, Yuno joined the fight at a time when she thought Kakashi wouldn't notice her.

And it turned out that Yuno was a competent fighter, which was surprising, because as far as Sasuke was concerned, the only skill she possessed (and was better than him at) was her scholastic aptitude. Seriously, since_when_ was she so skilled in kenjutsu?

'I can't trust Academy Reports now, can I,' Kakashi stated, his expression almost deadpan. It wasn't unusual for a few students to take the lesson of 'using stealth' and 'blending in' to heart, to the point they hide their abilities from their Academy instructors. This sort of thing happened every year, and sometimes it even turned out that it was the parents who had instructed their children to dumb themselves down. Hell, he had even managed to get- and fail- some of those particular students.

But what actually managed to surprise Kakashi was the possibility that these three were already –sort of- working together. Did they figure out the true purpose of the test already?

And when Sasuke sent a Katon jutsu hurling towards him while he was preoccupied with avoiding the blows of Yuno's katana, Kakashi wrote a quick mental note telling himself that yes, amazingly enough, they probably did.

After the smoke from the attack cleared, Sasuke quickly noticed that Kakashi had seemingly vanished into thin air and instinctively tensed, waiting for any counterattack. From the corner of his eye, he could see Yuno doing the same. A quick passing thought noted that Naruto and his clones have also vanished somewhere- although that was something he didn't care about right now.

Sasuke wasn't sure how much time had passed until Kakashi had returned just as unnoticeably as he had disappeared, by suddenly popping up in Sasuke's peripheral vision while he was scanning his surroundings for the nth time. And, to the Uchiha's surprise, he was standing next to Naruto, who was gagged and tied to a tree.

'Pretend that this is a real life situation, and that I am an enemy ninja,' Kakashi began once both Sasuke and Yuno noticed his presence. He whipped out a kunai and held it in a threatening manner (but a safe distance) at Naruto. The boy's eyes widened, but otherwise didn't make any move.

'What if I told you "Make any move to get the bells, and I'll kill Naruto"?' Kakashi continued, his eyes trained on Sasuke and Yuno, waiting for their reactions. He knew that he was being a bit too blunt, but he wanted to test their character.

Yuno's apathetic expression and tightened grip on the hilt of her katana didn't go unnoticed to Kakashi, but unexpectedly, Sasuke reacted first.

'Would you let him go if I forfeited my chance to get a bell?' he said, surprising even himself. 'In this hypothetical situation,' he quickly added, because _as if_ he would actually do that for his team-mate. Either of them.

Nevertheless, Kakashi is understandably surprised at the display of seemingly out-of-character behaviour, but after a few thought processes, he wondered if it's because Sasuke didn't want to see anyone else die in front of him. Maybe it's a trait of someone who has witnessed the death of loved ones… or maybe a virtue that Uchihas subconsciously possess…

_Riiiiiiiinnngg!_

Kakashi turned off the alarm clock and slid his kunai back into his pouch. Then, he surprised both Sasuke and Yuno by dispelling 'Naruto' in a cloud of smoke and letting the ropes simply fall onto the grass.

'What-' Yuno began to protest, but was cut off by Kakashi.

'That was just my shadow clone under henge,' he dismissively explained. 'Let's go back to the tree stumps to have lunch.'

As they all walked in silence, Yuno found herself questioning the purpose of the bell test.

_'Something is off...he _knows_ that we're outmatched by him, so he's trying to get us to work together.'_ Yuno frowned at Kakashi's back as if the answer was written there. _'But he didn't pass Sasuke and I…what is he trying to do?'_

Arriving at the tree stumps led to two sceptical genin when they found Naruto tied to the middle stump.

Again.

'… Is this the real one?' Sasuke finally asked after an awkward moment of staring at the blond in disbelief.

They ignored Naruto's 'Whaddaya mean by that, bastard?!' and Kakashi's eye's closed into what could only be interpreted as part of a smile when he replied 'Yes, of course it is. Now have your lunch, but don't give any to Naruto. That is an order.'

'WHAT?!' Naruto yelled. 'That's… fine! Who needs food anyways?'

'I'll give you guys another chance, but after lunch, the bell test will be even harder.' With that, Kakashi left.

Meanwhile, Yuno waited until she could no longer sense his presence before drawing out her katana and swinging it back. Both Naruto and Sasuke's eyes widened as they watched the blade rapidly slice through the air, and towards… Naruto?

_'-!'_

The sound of something being sliced filled the air, and it took Naruto a second to realise that he was still alive.

'W-what did you do t-that for?!' he demanded shakily. He had not quite recovered from the feeling of almost being sliced apart by his crush.

Yuno simply twitched her lips up into a smile that did not quite reach her eyes.

'Kakashi-sensei only told us not to feed you. He never said anything about cutting your ropes and freeing you.'

There. She did it- she helped Naruto.

_'The only way for both Sasuke and I to pass is for Naruto to also pass, right? He's definitely going to pass us now, isn't he?'_

Suddenly a cloud of dust picked up and Kakashi was right in front of them, standing menacingly with his hands on his hips.

'Loophole abuse!' he accused, pointing at Yuno. She stared back at him with an openly confused expression that mirrored both her team mates'.

'Which was clever though- you all pass.'

This was the moment that Sasuke had waited for and expected; he was already five years behind his brother, who became a genin at the age Sasuke enrolled in the Academy. But ironically, this was also the day his life had taken a drastic turn for the worse.

If there was a message his future self would relay to him right now, it will be:

_You shouldn't have encouraged her._

* * *

**Things I would like to say:**

***Before you put something like 'How the heck couldn't they have seen that Sakura is not Sakura, but Yuno?!' in your review, here is my reasoning: The pink-haired girl in this story is physically Sakura. It's just that Yuno's sort of possessed her in some way. Or maybe they've merged together. Okay, I'm not really making any sense, am I? Geez, it's just hard to explain properly. x_x**

***Gah! Sorry if the second half of the bell test was weird. Immediately after outlining that part, I tried ignoring it and imagining if there was another scenario which would make more sense. But I ended up mind-screwing myself instead. OTL. You can PM me about it if you're confused.**

***I don't actually ship this. Really. I wrote this for the hell of it, because the entire idea is weird and I like weird things.**

***Feedback and constructive criticism is much appreciated, so please review.**


	2. Absence

**2. Absence**

**I know everyone hates reading the Land of Waves arc in Fanfiction, so I've decided to completely cut it out. Why? Because even though Yuno actually helped in all of the fights, the outcome of the entire arc still ended up the same: they still defeated Gatou, Sasuke awakened his Sharingan and both Zabuza and Haku still died. And because you wouldn't want to reread something that you already know, why bother?**

**Anyway, here's another chapter, so enjoy!**

* * *

_After the Land of Waves arc…_

After returning from their mission, Naruto rushed off, eager to have his first meal at Ichiraku's in an entire week, which was far too long in his opinion. Not before asking for Yuno's company, of course. However, she politely declined after seeing Sasuke head back to his home, and made the excuse that she also wanted to head towards her own home and rest first.

As she walked past the semi-busy streets, she mentally replayed the events of their mission. She did well in their C-Rank turned A-Rank mission, right? After all, she killed one of the Demon Brothers when they appeared- though she didn't manage to even land a scratch on Momochi Zabuza afterwards. Yuno was also proud to say that she was much better than Naruto and even Sasuke at chakra control, as proven during their week of training. And when the inevitable re-encounter with the Demon of the Mist finally came, she immediately abandoned her duty of guarding Tazuna once the masked guy trapped Sasuke in an ice dome (well, Tazuna let her go and besides, Sasuke was more important). She then destroyed the ice mirrors from the outside, and even managed to hold off against the masked guy on her own.

Yuno continued on, walking past more shops and only faltering in her pace when she heard something- some people- approaching her general direction.

'And it just _had_ to use _me_ as a scratching post! See, this is why I'm lucky to not own a pet. They can be so- so… _ugh_!' came the unmistakable voice of Ino.

'It's okay, Asuma-sensei said that we're getting a C-Rank mission tomorrow, right?' another voice- Chouji- said.

'Oh, great. A C-Rank,' Shikamaru muttered.

'What?!' exclaimed Ino. 'Shouldn't you at least be more grateful? Do you _want_ to keep doing those boring chores for people who happen to have too much money on their hands?'

'A rise in difficulty also means that things could get a lot more troublesome,' Shikamaru half-heartedly explained, shoving his hands into his pockets.

Team 10 was a few shops away from Yuno, strolling and having idle conversation like the good old family friends they were. Their jounin sensei, the tanned black-haired man with a beard, didn't appear to be with them. Ino and Shikamaru continued on in a one-sided banter about the duties of a shinobi, which ended with Ino being cut off by Chouji, who insisted that they should find a place to have dinner at first. Yuno, who had been watching them up until that point, decided to approach them.

'Oh hey, Forehead Girl!' Ino greeted when she noticed her. She swept her eyes over the street, searching for any signs of the other members of Team 7. 'Where are the others?' Specifically, where's her crush, Sasuke?

'Ah, they're all off doing their own things,' Yuno replied, appearing unfazed by the jab at her body image.

Ino raised an eyebrow, feeling quite sceptical that Sakura hadn't taken that as an opportunity to call her 'Ino-pig' like she usually did.

'Well,' Ino began, 'you guys just got back from a mission like we did, right?'

'Yeah, it went very well,' Yuno smiled, revisiting her earlier thoughts. When she didn't say anything else, Ino opened her mouth to ask about her former best friend's sudden change in behaviour, only to have Chouji speak before she did.

'Really? What did you have to do?'

'It was an escort mission to the Land of Waves.'

'Escort mission?' Shikamaru finally spoke up. 'You got a C-Rank already?'

'What! Really?' shrieked Ino, all fired up about the topic again. She put her hands on her hips and glared accusingly at both of her team mates. 'This is why you two shouldn't be so goddamn lazy all the time! If even the team with the _dead last_ managed to get a C-Rank before us, then we are _so behind_!'

'Yeah, whatever,' Shikamaru muttered, visibly annoyed. 'Calm down.'

'Yeah! I'm starving! We should really go find a place to eat now,' Chouji added. 'Would you like to join us, Sakura?'

'Oh no, it's fine,' Yuno quickly replied. 'I don't have any money on me, and I don't want to be a bother.'

'Oh. That's a shame.'

'Anyway, um, Ino?' Yuno said, addressing directly to the blonde. 'Would you like to come over afterwards, to catch up?'

Ino blinked in surprise. 'What? I mean…' Her look of surprise quickly turned into suspicion, and she regarded Sakura. 'Hang on, I thought we hated each other.'

'Well that's the thing. It's silly to break a friendship over a boy, so I would like to backtrack on that.'

Ino stared at her for a little while longer, and sighed.

'When have you grown up without me, Fore- Sakura?' Geez, she had grown so used to insulting Sakura that using her real name felt strange. 'Well, you _were_ the one who started this whole rival thing, so in that end I guess it's only fair that you also end it.'

At that, Yuno looked at her strangely.

'I never said we weren't still rivals.'

'Right, I should've guessed as much,' Ino grinned. 'But don't expect me to give up just because I'm not on the same team as Sasuke.'

Yuno's lips twitched. 'So you're coming over to my place, aren't you?'

'Yeah yeah, I will.' Ino waved dismissively at her. 'I'll come over after I've finished eating with these two. See ya!'

After watching Yuno disappear down the street, Team 10 chose to eat in a quaint diner, which, according to Chouji, served the best seafood in Konoha. After ordering their food, Shikamaru, surprisingly, initiated the conversation.

'Don't you think that Sakura seems to be acting a bit different than usual?'

'Hm… she does seem to be more reserved. Kind of like back then, before joining the Academy,' Ino replied thoughtfully, and furrowed her brows. 'But the change really does seem sudden though, don't you think?'

* * *

'Okay, that's it for today. I'll go submit this report.'

With that, Kakashi disappeared and Team 7 was left to take a break for the rest of the day. Ever since their so-called "C-Rank escort mission", there was an unspoken agreement within the team that they resume completing D-Ranks, at least until they were ready again. Although their mission to the Land of Waves wasn't exactly a disaster (they _did_ escort their client safely to his home, amongst other things), the experience still had some form of impact on the genins.

Yuno, while elated that she had the opportunity to fight and prove her skills to Sasuke, was also rather disappointed when she realised that he and Naruto had subtly gotten closer at some point during the mission. Their rivalry may seem more hostile than it was before, but… it felt different. And she wasn't sure if she liked it at all.

Yuno snapped out of her thoughts when Sasuke turned to leave, muttering that he's heading home.

'Sasuke-kun!' she called, running after him. 'You don't have anything to do now, right?'

Sasuke felt uncomfortable under her hopeful gaze. She may have earned some of his respect ever since they were stuck on the same team together, but he still didn't want to date her. Or anyone else, for that matter. Besides, he didn't see her as anything more than a team mate that he was willing to work with, like Naruto (only he would never admit that out loud). Dating her would be like dating Naruto and that's… no. Just no.

'Actually,' Sasuke finally replied. 'I'm going to train right now.'

'Really? That's great! We get a chance to work on our teamwork together, right?' Yuno said eagerly as she grabbed his right arm with both her hands.

Sasuke felt a bit annoyed at her persistence, and sighed. He looked around and noticed that Naruto was sulking and scowling at him from not too far.

Well maybe he could…

'Yeah, of course,' he said. Then, he quickly added, 'You coming with us, idiot?'

Naruto looked just as shocked as he expected him to be.

'What?'

Sasuke ignored the tightened grip on his arm continued.

'If we're going to work on our teamwork, you wouldn't want to be the useless load, would you?'

Naruto's scowl immediately returned.

'What're you talking about? Next time _you're_ gonna be the one who needs saving. And then I'll just stand above you and laugh my ass off! Hah!'

Sasuke suddenly felt the grip on his arm disappear, and then saw a kunai sailing through the air, past Naruto and towards a box behind him. The box screamed when the kunai hit it, then flipped over and revealed two young boys and a girl who all looked visibly frightened. The boy with the long blue scarf recovered first, and pointed an accusing finger at Yuno.

'You! What're you trying to do, kill the future Hokage?'

'Konohamaru? What're you doing here?'

'Boss!' Konohamaru exclaimed, seemingly forgetting about Yuno already. 'My disguise was so good you didn't notice me, right?'

'What're you talking about? What kinda box is square with two holes?' Naruto criticised, crossing his arms in an attempt to look superior. 'Of _course_ I saw through it. And you still haven't answered my question.'

Konohamaru pouted. 'You're being so cold.' He glanced behind Naruto and saw Yuno and Sasuke still standing there, watching quietly. He suddenly remembered that the pink-haired girl had tried to kill him, and the indignant feeling filled his mind once more.

Naruto noticed him glaring in the direction of his team mates, and decided to introduce them to each other.

'Hey, Konohamaru, this is Yuno and Sasuke, my team mates. Yuno gets kinda scary sometimes, but she's an awesome ninja. Sasuke's okay too I guess, but he's a dick.'

Naruto stiffened when he felt two death glares on his back, while Konohamaru relented and introduced himself and his two friends, Udon and Moegi.

'So what're you doing here?' Naruto repeated after the introductions were done.

'You promised that you're gonna play with us today!'

'Ah… yeah, I did.' Naruto scratched the back of his head sheepishly. 'But I've got training with my team mates. I'll play with you next time.' And besides, his team mates both happen to be rather impatient people.

'But Boss!'

One short argument later, Konohamaru and his friends sulked and left to play by themselves. Naruto felt kind of bad, so he promised them that he'd _definitely_ play with them tomorrow, after completing missions and training with his team.

After that, Team 7 had their first unsupervised team training. They decided on sparring each other, and Yuno was up against Naruto first. She proceeded to 'help' him by exploiting all of his flaws, from his sloppiness in stance to usage of weapons. This subtle teaching tactic was lost on him, however, and in the end he attempted win using his surprise tactics instead. She still wiped the floor with him, though.

Yuno was more than a little annoyed when she noticed that Naruto put visibly more effort into his spar against Sasuke. But after putting a little more thought into it, she decided that she could probably use the 'wouldn't hit a girl' mindset to her advantage against some of her opponents. Having them underestimate her would give her the upper hand in the beginning, after all.

Sasuke was slightly surprised when Yuno didn't hold back in their spar, especially given how she normally had this ridiculous notion of 'protecting' him (he was perfectly capable of taking care of himself, thank you very much). But he quickly adjusted to her ruthlessness, and soon found it thrilling to spar with someone closer to his level. He still won, of course, but he couldn't deny that she was good; she had drastically improved ever since graduating the Academy, so it wasn't as if it shocked him that much.

The sun was already setting by the time Yuno and Sasuke finished their sparring match, and the three of them decided to call it a day. Yuno left first, and she did so rather abruptly. Sasuke was about to go home and do some more training by himself, but Naruto decided to follow him, as if he suddenly decided that the two of them were friends.

'Y'know,' Naruto remarked. 'Ever since graduation, Yuno's been acting like a completely different person, don't ya think?'

Yeah, of course Sasuke noticed. He didn't say anything out loud though, so Naruto continued.

'It's kinda like… the Yuno now and the Sakura at the Academy are two completely different people.' He said this with such an unusually thoughtful expression on his face that Sasuke couldn't help but notice that Naruto held no signs of his usual hard-to-take-seriously self. In fact, he looked genuinely confused. Sasuke refrained himself from scoffing at the idea just to rile up the blond, because he actually had a point. Now that he was considering it, he thought back to all his interactions with Yuno ever since Team 7 was formed.

'I suppose,' Sasuke admitted out loud. 'Though to me, she doesn't really seem that much different. Only just more forceful than usual.'

Neither he nor Naruto had noticed Yuno's presence in the tree that was right above them. She was originally planning on watching Sasuke walk home safely like she occasionally did, but then she overheard his conversation with Naruto. The blond, who was going to Ichiraku's for dinner, was oblivious to the deep hatred directed towards him at that moment. Yuno wasn't going to sit back for this- Naruto was _not_ going to get any closer to Sasuke than he already is.

Maybe she should kill him.

* * *

Kakashi stood with the other jounins and chuunins and listened to the Third Hokage brief them on the Chuunin Exams that Konoha would begin hosting in a few days. He was considering nominating his team to participate; he wasn't expecting them to pass, but he thought that letting them participate would give them some learning experience that couldn't be taught through normal teaching and training. It would also be a great way to knock his genins down a few pegs in the arrogance department- competing against the best in other villages had a tendency to do that. Of course, there was the possibility that they could die, but something told him that they would be able to look after themselves.

'Well… Kakashi, Kurenai and Asuma,' the Third Hokage continued. 'Are there any genins that you would like to enter into this Chuunin Exam?'

'Actually, Hokage-sama,' Asuma cut in. 'My team won't be participating, because Yamanaka Ino has been missing for two days.'

Quiet murmurings spread through the room. It was rare, but not unheard-of, for children from recognised clans such as the Yamanaka, to mysteriously vanish. Normally they were kidnapped by people who wished to steal their bloodline techniques, but sometimes they would also be kidnapped, then bought and sold in underground markets.

'When did you notice her absence?' Kurenai asked worriedly.

'This morning. Yesterday, when she didn't turn up at our usual spot, I thought that maybe she was sick and unwell, so I didn't think much of it. But this morning, I ran into her worried mother and realised that it wasn't the case.'

The Third Hokage's expression turned grim. 'Very well, an investigation will be held. But back to the subject matter at hand- what about you, Kurenai? Will you be volunteering any members of your team?'

'No, Hokage-sama,' Kurenai replied firmly.

'I see. Kakashi?'

Kakashi hesitated. He hadn't expected the other two to not nominate their teams at all, but then again, he hadn't expected Yamanaka Ino to have gotten herself kidnapped on the day his team returned from their escort mission. This was his chance to choose: Was he going to give his team some valuable experience of the shinobi world, or was he going to train them for another half a year, when they would have a better chance of actually passing the exam?

He weighed his choices, and then made up his mind. Kakashi steeled his resolve and looked the Third Hokage in the eye.

'No, Hokage-sama. My team can wait for another half a year.'

* * *

**Things I would like to say:**

*** To Team 10, she's still Sakura, so sorry if there's any confusion with the constant switching between the usage of 'Sakura' and 'Yuno'.**

*** If you're wondering about the absence of the Sand Siblings, they were actually still there. It's just that Team 7 and Konohamaru were so focused on their conversation that they ignored Kankuro and Temari when they walked by.**

*** I've always seen Kakashi, Asuma and Kurenai all volunteering their teams as some peer pressure thing (Kakashi going first, followed by Kurenai and then Asuma, who kind of didn't really have a choice). So if Asuma reports that Ino's missing and then Kurenai gets concerned, I don't really think that Kakashi would've volunteered his team. I hope that makes sense.**

*** I don't hate anyone (just had to put it out there). Yuno's just a crazy yandere and it's hard to keep her in character if she doesn't go around at least ****_thinking_**** about killing someone. Besides, if I actually hated a character, I would probably avoid writing them at all.**


End file.
